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This episode summary is an official CW press release. It may contain errors.DO NOT CHANGE!

Sam and Dean race to Bobby's (guest star Jim Beaver) side after he lapses into a coma and can't be awakened. While unconscious, Bobby battles his personal demons and the reason he became a hunter is revealed. Sam and Dean discover someone poisoned Bobby with a potion that will kill him if he doesn't wake soon. When the brothers decide to take the potion themselves to enter Bobby's dream in order to save him, they come face to face with their own personal nightmares.

Bobby is looking around in an old house, when a woman jumps out and attacks him. Suddenly the scene cuts to a maid entering a motel room, unable to wake a sleeping Bobby.

Sam is in a bar drinking alone and Dean enters, wondering why he’s drinking whiskey at two in the afternoon. Sam admits he’s upset about being unable to save Dean, because Dean doesn't want to be saved. He asks Dean how he could care so little about himself. Dean gets a call on his phone before answering.

At the hospital, Bobby is in a coma and the doctor tells them he doesn't know what’s causing it or how to treat it. Sam and Dean check Bobby’s motel room and find his research clippings in the closet, along with an article about a doctor who died by going to sleep and not waking up. The doctor was conducting a sleep study at the time. Sam stays behind to research while Dean goes to the doctor’s office. Dean eventually finds a young man who was part of the sleep study, Jeremy Frost, and he offers Dean a beer. Dean drinks it. Jeremy has a condition where he can't dream naturally, and the study allowed him to dream by drinking a tea made of "African Dreamroot".

Back in Bobby’s hospital room, Sam tells Dean about African dreamroot, which allows people to enter other people's dreams. They surmise that someone killed the doctor this way and is now going after Bobby. Bobby screams in his dream, hiding in a closet from whomever's after him. Dean suggests to Sam that they take the dreamroot and get inside Bobby’s dream to save him. Sam points out it is hard to come by, so Dean suggests contacting Bela.

Sam is on the computer, and hears a knock at the door. Bela comes in, wearing a beige trench coat, and takes off the coat, revealing lingerie underneath. She kisses Sam and they land on the bed in a heat of passion, just before Dean shouts to Sam to wake up. Sam wakes up rattled, especially when Dean mentions Bela. There’s a knock at the door and Bela enters for real, freaking out Sam more. She gives Dean the African dreamroot, claiming she’s doing this for Bobby because he saved her life in Flagstaff. Dean kicks her out.

Sam makes two glasses of tea, and puts some of Bobby’s hair in them so they can enter his dream. They drink, and find they are in a version of Bobby’s house. Sam goes outside, and enters a bright technicolored world full of flowers and birds singing. The door slams behind him, separating him from Dean. Dean searches the house and finds Bobby in the closet. He tells Bobby this is a dream, but Bobby doesn't believe him when a woman approaches them, with stab marks all over her, scaring Bobby. Bobby tells Dean that the woman is Bobby's wife.

The woman confronts Bobby over why he stabbed her, and Bobby claims she was possessed, and he didn't know how to save her back then. Dean pulls him away. Outside, Sam gets whacked with a baseball bat, and sees Jeremy, who’s angry to find Sam there. Inside, Dean convinces Bobby to take control of the dream and the woman disappears, and they all wake up a split second before Sam gets his head bashed in.

At the hospital, Dean asks Bobby about his wife. Bobby confesses that everyone gets into hunting somehow, and thanks Dean for saving him. Sam says he can’t find the man in the dream. Bobby explains that his name is Jeremy Frost, and he wasn't able to dream because his dad bashed his head in with a baseball bat which resulted in Charcot-Wilbrand Syndrome; " basically, an inability to dream. Jeremy was able to get into Bobby's dream by offering him a beer, which he drank, leaving his DNA available for Jeremy to use in the African dreamroot tea. Dean admits he drank a beer too, so now Jeremy can come after him. Bobby tells him to coffee up, because he can’t go to sleep.

Two days later, a very irritated Dean drives the Impala, yelling at Bobby over the phone because they can’t find Jeremy. Dean pulls over and decides he’s going to sleep, ready to take Jeremy on. Sam pulls out some of Dean’s hair, insisting on going too. Dean doesn't like the idea of Sam digging around in his head, but Sam won’t listen. They both wake up in the Impala, and step outside to see Lisa on a blanket with a picnic basket, telling Dean they have to pick up Ben soon and that she loves him, before disappearing. Dean denies ever having that dream to Sam. Sam spots Jeremy in the woods and they go after him, but Dean falls behind and finds himself alone in a long hallway.

Sam looks for Dean in the woods, while Dean enters the motel room and sees someone at the desk, turning the light off an on. A dream version of him turns around, and Dean gets it - this is a dark part of his own subconscious. Dream Dean tells real Dean how worthless he feels and how he hates what he sees in the mirror. Dean tries to take control of the dream by snapping his fingers, but nothing happens. Dream Dean slams the door and locks it, holds a shotgun and tells Dean they need to talk. Meanwhile, Sam wakes up in the Impala to find Jeremy next to him. He hits Sam with the bat, and Sam falls out of the car and tries to crawl away. Jeremy comes after him, and Sam is suddenly tied to stakes in the ground. Jeremy says he gets stronger with each dream, and Sam and Dean aren't waking up.

Dream Dean berates real Dean, telling him he’s got nothing but Sam, everything he owns was his dad’s, his dad thought he was a good soldier and nothing else, and doted on Sam while not caring whether Dean lived or died. Dean fights back in a rage, calling his father an "obsessed bastard" who couldn't protect his family, who let his wife die, and who wasn't there for Sam. Dean doesn't deserve what his dad put on him, and he doesn't deserve to go to hell. He grabs the shotgun and shoots Dream Dean, symbolically killing the self-loathing part of himself. It then transforms into a black-eyed demon version of Dean, a manifestation of Dean's fear of his impending death and transformation in to a demon in Hell because of the deal he made with the crossroads demon. "This is what you're going to become", it taunts.

Sam takes an intense beating from Jeremy. Jeremy tells Sam that there’s nothing Jeremy can’t do because of the dreamroot, and Sam reminds Jeremy that he took the dreamroot, too. Jeremy’s father appears, and Jeremy is frozen in fear, giving Sam the chance to deliver two sharp whacks to the head with the baseball bat, killing Jeremy. Sam and Dean wake up in the Impala.

Back at the motel, Bobby asks Sam if his ability to enter Jeremy's dream had anything to do with his psychic stuff. Sam says no, but he’s not certain. Dean says he can’t find Bela, and upon discussion about Bela's motives, Bobby says that all he did n Flagstaff was give her a good deal on an amulet. Dean checks the safe and finds that Bela stole the Colt. While packing up to hunt down Bela, Dean asks Sam what he saw in the dream. Sam only saw Jeremy, and Dean lies, saying nothing happened with him because he was looking for Sam. They get into the car, and Dean admits to Sam he doesn't want to die and doesn't want to go to Hell. Sam promises they’ll find a way to save him.

There is a final flash to Dean's dream with the demon version of himself, repeating to Dean that he’s going to die and that’s what he’s going to become, then snapping his fingers to end the dream.

This episode was named after the Oz-episode with the same name. This is, however, not the first time Supernatural-episodes have been named after episodes of other TV-series, as well as song names.

When Dean enters late doctor's office with his research assistant, among the books stacked on the desk is The Cumulative Dream authored by "Ringrose". Ocea Ringrose was set dresser for Supernatural from 2006-2015.

This is the only time actress Elizabeth Marleau portrays Karen, due to being visibly pregnant by the time she was supposed to reprise her role.

In the scene where Bobby is lying in the hospital bed, Jared Padalecki was tickling Jim Beaver's feet. Jim was able to deliver his lines long enough to finish the scene, after which Jim yelled at Jared.

This episode was intended to have Jason from Friday the 13th appear in it, but three days before shooting, the studio to whom the Supernatural crew had asked permission to use the character admitted that they didn't have the rights to Jason. The crew then hurriedly rewrote the script.

Jason appears briefly in the Season 4 gag reel, armed with a machete and a hockey mask made by the crew.

Jason was set to appear in Dean's dream world, and turn the episode into a more horror-themed one, based on 80s movies.

Eric Kripke revealed that Dean and Sam's dreams were supposed to contrast each other. Sam dreaming of having sex with Bela was to show that below his soft exterior, Sam was basically "a horndog". Dean's dream, on the other hand, was to show Dean's soft desire of wanting to live a normal life with Lisa Braeden.